Indonesia drops mass culling plan to fight bird flu
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Indonesia will not carry out a planned mass culling of farm animals to combat bird flu virus due to a lack of funds, a minister said on Thursday.
Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono said Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, would stick to vaccinating healthy animals and only cull those infected by the H5N1 virus.
The World Health Organisation has questioned the effectiveness of vaccines and says culling is the best weapon.
“The government is not ready to conduct mass culling…because the costs are too high,” Apriyantono told reporters.
To compensate farmers and pay for other costs, the government would need around 800 billion rupiah ($81.42 million), well above an emergency fund of around $13.71 million for the agriculture ministry.
Health experts are still puzzled over how the country’s first victims—a father and his two young daughters—contracted the disease they died from this month.
Authorities have found signs of bird flu in chicken droppings near the victim’s family home, but have not yet linked the discovery to the victims.
Apriyantono said pigs and fowls suspected to be infected with the disease would be closely monitored.
“Selective culling accompanied by tight surveillance will be cost efficient,” he said.
In Indonesia, the virus has spread to 21 provinces out of 33 over the past two years, killing more than 9.5 million fowls.
It had already jumped species in Indonesia and was discovered in pigs on densely populated Java island earlier this year.
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